Exams - Take and Re-take - or abandon exams?

Abandon Exams, Abandon Retakes?

This proposal would be a disaster. It is an attempt by the low achievers to discourage the high achievers and by the failures to discourage the average.  The really high achievers will pass anyway. leaving the majority stressed and floundering.

Teachers will be diverted from encouraging the low achievers. The lower achievers are disappointed and who will be discouraged from taking exams. At school I was not allowed to sit subjects at O level because I failed them at the mock.

GCSE
Employers wanted the O levels replaced by GCSEs because if you are going to employ all 30 members of a class of school leavers you want to know who is top of the lowest 30 per cent so that they can be given a little extra help, while identifying those who are really at the lowest marks can help you decide not to employ people if you will expect too much and then sack them, ruining their job record, when you could be sending them for different training or jobs more suited to their ability or level in that area.

It also means your lowest achievers are not encouraged to continue and reach an acceptable level, so you have a country of 30 per cent unqualified people who cannot be employed in your country or overseas, idle hands encouraged to stay idle and maybe turn to the dole queue or crime instead of seeking further education and employment.

The Americans succeed in business because they continue education throughout their adult life. In the UK we have introduced refresher courses of 4 days a week in all fields, teaching, medicine, and this is the right attitude. My father of 93 was doing the refresher course exams which enabled him to be helpful as a volunteer at a local hospital.

Adult Education
An end to 'old wives' tales' of outdated information. Encourage teachers to teach everybody, of all ages.

Crammers
I went into schools in Singapore on a Saturday where a class was run for pupils who failed English O level mock exam. Most had non English speaking parents. With help and encouragement every girl (except one who was in hospital) got a pass.

Under my old school system in the UK, in which the school wanted to be high on the league table and re-takes were not encouraged, all those girls would have failed to get a qualification and more importantly would have failed to achieve a higher standard of speaking and writing English.

Re-taking is not cheating. If you achieve the level, you achieve it.

If taking exams early or doing mock exams encourages pupils to work harder to achieve the success of a higher grade, that is good. High achievers and hard workers should be encouraged.

Matriculation

The original prewar matric system of all five subjects passed left many pupils leaving school with no qualifications at all. They hated school, learning skills, any institution and authority.

GCSE was brought in so employers could distinguish the better of five applicants of a job all of who has failed to achieve the distinction level of a GCSE pass. They wanted to know who was only just below the average and could be retrained and re-sit exams at company expense and who would need twice the time and money to be brought up to standard.

Pupils and workers who were not all rounders some had high levels of skill in one area.
Pupils and teachers will get depressed. Everybody should have the encouragement to try, try again and not be damned by their first failure. This is a disaster. GCSE was brought in to encourage those who did badly.

My school would not let me take exams unless I was likely to score highly. Result I dropped subjects which were needed for my education in life and further university entrance.

We need to encourage people to try, try, again. If Edison had not continued trying, none of us would be sitting here under electric light bulbs.

When I was teaching, pupils, parents and teachers could order past test papers. They came from the board which set the papers. Now you can buy books of test papers from major boo shops and online stores such as Amazon.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.com/Model-Test-Papers-Business-Systems/dp/818333380X

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor.

How to find a lost pen - and not lose another; lost pens, coins, keys, more

My good friend and president of a club lost a pen at a club meeting. At least ten of us went hunting. It was a valuable pen. A Waterman.

A waterman pen.

Other valuable pens include Parker pens (£60 upwards), Mont Blanc pens with a white star shape cap like the snow-capped top of Mont Blanc (about £300), any pen which you care about.

Here's where our lost and found searches went:

I  checked

every pocket of my coat jacket inside and out, all my pockets in my vest emptied out, turned my bucket bag onto the floor, and shook out the books and manuals, and inspected my pens now on my kitchen table/desk which say Angela Lansbury or Writers Holiday or hotel names or are very cheap.

A Waterman pen

My other thoughts are:

Usual place to find pens are:

1 Dropped through hole the pen tip made in pocket - coin or pen is in lining of jacket.

2 Left behind on lectern and gathered up by next speaker, SAA or President who takes care of it or puts it in cupboard.

3 Rolls under radiator or cupboard at venue.

4 Left with papers gathered up to throw in bins.

I remember somebody asking me if I had a pen very early in the evening. I usually carry a cheap pen to lend out. Many meetings have a box of cheap pens. 

 On one occasion I was unusually not willing to lend my pen nor look for a spare because I needed it right away to write timings.

If a pen is not in the room near you the other possibilities by way of elimination are:

1 Left/dropped by you or another in toilet or toilet anteroom

2 Fallen behind a box at the doorway

3 Rolled back to the wall under the window or behind your chairs

4 In the kitchen rolled behind the clutter on a work surface

5 Rolled under seat of a car such as yours or the person who gave you a lift or another relative's or friend's or hotel's car

6 Dropped outside the venue you visited underneath the car (check with a torch) or 

7 Dropped at doorway of building while using keys. (Recalling I have in previous years found items I dropped on my own doorstep!)

You could put up a notice in the hall so if anybody finds it they know who to phone.

If very valuable claim on car or house insurance.

If smaller value get money towards it as gift to yourself from the club at end of season.

Replace with pen with your name written on it (from several companies online which do promotional pens).

The good news is the lost pen was found!

When I'm going to a busy place or out on a journey I often put a label on my pen.

Angela Lansbury, author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In.
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